A News Blog

Crime and courts in West Alabama

A Shelby County man was killed in an interstate crash Tuesday afternoon. Columbiana resident Johnathan Fredrick Matzke, 20, was killed when the Ford F250 he was driving collided with a 2008 Volvo. The accident happened near the 90 mile marker of Interstate 20/59, 16 miles north of Tuscaloosa. Alabama State Troopers are investigating the cause of the accident.

A Northport woman was killed in an accident on U.S. Highway 43 on Tuesday. Tonya Michelle Jones, 45, died in the two-vehicle crash about 15 miles north of Northport. She was driving a 2004 Ford Taurus that collided with a 2005 Chevrolet Tahoe. The driver of the Tahoe, Berry resident Peggy Sue Woolbright, 35, was transported to UAB Hospital in Birmingham. Alabama State Troopers are investigating the cause of the crash.

Authorities in Pickens County are searching for an Aliceville man who has been missing for more than two weeks Tommy Howard, 29, was last seen in Aliceville driving a light green 1997 Saturn staton wagon. Anyone who has seen him is asked to contact the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office at 205-367-2000 or 911 dispatchers at 205-367-9804.

Autopsy results are still pending in the case of a suspicious house fire on Nicol Park Road last month. Virginia Essary Durden, 48, and Lee Wilson Durden, 52, died in the fire on July 22. Fire investigators are working to determine the cause while homicide investigators are conducing a death investigation. The death investigation is pending autopsy results, said Tuscaloosa County Metro Homicide Unit commander Capt. Gary Hood. Hood released the names of the husband and wife on Tuesday.

Drug agents recovered seven ounces of cocaine, a handgun, drug paraphernalia and $3,000 in cash after raiding a home in Cottondale Friday morning. Agents with the West Alabama Narcotics Task Force investigated the case of a month, Tuscaloosa Police spokesman Sgt. Brent Blankley said. Dshaun Kendrell Ivory, 35, was charged with four counts of selling drugs on or near a school campus, one count of trafficking cocaine, one cont of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, possession of paraphernalia… Read More »

Tuscaloosa business owner will not spend time in jail after admitting that he sexually assaulted two young girls more than 20 years ago. Jerry Lewis Swindle, 65, was charged with two counts of first-degree sexual abuse. He pleaded guilty to one of those felony counts in court Friday and agreed to apologize and admit guilt to the victim in the other case. Swindle owns Tuscaloosa Acoustical Systems Inc., a drywall contracting business off Old Montgomery Highway. The victims, now adult… Read More »

A teenager who ran away from her family at a Tuscaloosa gas station turned herself in to authorities Thursday morning. Aurora Belladonna Zimmer, ,15, called police from a store in Jackson, Miss. at 9 a.m., said Tuscaloosa Police spokesman Sgt. Brent Blankley. She was on a trip from Mississippi to Tennessee last Friday when she left her family at a gas station on McFarland Boulevard. Blankley said that Zimmer was in good health and will be returned to her mother’s custody.… Read More »

Authorities in Tuscaloosa are searching for a teenager who ran away from her mother at a gas station last week. Aurora Belladonna Zimmer, 15, was traveling with her family from Mississippi to Tennessee and stopped in the 3900 block of McFarland Boulevard East on Friday, said Tuscaloosa Police spokesman Sgt. Brent Blankley. The teenager has a history of running away, he said. She has bright red hair, is five feet, seven inches tall and weighs 170 pounds. Anyone with information… Read More »

Pickens County Sheriff’s deputies are searching for a man who tried to rob the West Alabama Bank in Ethelsville Tuesday morning. The man entered the bank on Main Street at 9 a.m., indicated he had a weapon and demanded money, according to a release from Pickens County Sheriff David Abston. “Upon realizing the bank employees refusal to cooperate the man began threatening to shoot the place up and reached into his pants as if reaching for a weapon,” Abston said… Read More »

A Reform man was killed early Saturday morning when his motorcycle struck an SUV at the intersection of Lurleen Wallace Boulevard North and University Boulevard. The man, 55, was driving a 2003 Honda Gold Wing and was heading toward Northport from downtown Tuscaloosa, said Tuscaloosa Police spokesman Sgt. Brent Blankley. He ran through a red light and struck the driver’s side door of a 2008 Toyota 4Runner that was heading west on University Boulevard, Blankley said. The accident happened at… Read More »